


Unexpected Company

by ambered, SyconSenti



Series: Hermitbrine AU [7]
Category: Doom (Video Games), Hermitbrine au - Fandom, Hermitcraft RPF, Minecraft (Video Game)
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Crossover, Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, Dismemberment, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Major Character Injury, Uncle Vega AU, hermitbrine au, literally a crossover of an au that's a crossover that is crossingover with another au, the brain child of two angst and fluff loving single brain cells
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-04
Updated: 2020-07-04
Packaged: 2021-03-03 19:01:55
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 9
Words: 19,471
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24900493
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ambered/pseuds/ambered, https://archiveofourown.org/users/SyconSenti/pseuds/SyconSenti
Summary: Okay so, uh... ambered-glazed-sheep made an AU of Xisuma being the son of the DoomSlayer, which has developed into quite something.I asked a single question: "How would Doomguy react to Herobrine?"And things happened.So please enjoy, the Crossover of an Au that is a crossover with another Au which I guess can technically be called a crossover?Note: I don't think this is technically canon to the Hermitbrine storyline, because otherwise Xisuma just forgot to mention anything about his Hell-razing dad throughout all 40 something chapters of the first story. But that's what Au's are for!- probably not canon to Uncle VEGA AU either, but what is canon anyways?This plays after the events of the fic 'Hermitbrine': https://archiveofourown.org/works/20935808
Series: Hermitbrine AU [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2097114
Comments: 152
Kudos: 278





	1. Enemies Return

Xisuma looked up from his build as his communicator vibrated in his pocket. He had been sunken in his work, taking care of his bee farm and stocking up his honey vault, so he hadn’t even noticed how much time had passed.

Wiping off honey on his pants, Xisuma took a step back from his work and took out his communicator. To his surprise, it was a private message instead of being written in the general chat.

**< GoodTimesWithScar > Xisuma>** hey X, can you help me with a mob situation?

**< GoodTimesWithScar > Xisuma>** I think you’re closest by

**< GoodTimesWithScar > Xisuma>** I was just getting supplies and was kinda caught off guard

**< GoodTimesWithScar > Xisuma>** my elytra has worn out as well…

Xisuma checked the coordinates Scar had sent him, determining they were just a few hundred blocks out from his base area, deep in the jungle. He briefly wondered what Scar was doing halfway across the map.

_Must’ve run into a cave in the jungle. He has a tendency to get in trouble with mobs, after all..._ X mused while he quickly stuffed the remaining honey blocks he was carrying into a nearby shulker box, before taking out his communicator once more.

**< Xisuma > GoodTimeWithScar>** Sure thing, I’ll be over in a sec!

He stretched his back out after working for hours on end, then clambered out of the honey trench, spread his elytra, and took off with the use of a rocket.

The jungle was zooming by beneath him, the towers of his base getting smaller and smaller behind Xisuma until it disappeared in the distance. He pulled up his coordinates on his helmet, honing in onto the location Scar had sent him. Peering down, Xisuma didn’t see anything, hermits or mobs alike, but touched down in a small clearing between the trees nonetheless.

“Scar? Are you there?” The admin looked around him, cluelessly scratching his helmet when he didn’t see or hear anything. The thought of Scar pranking him crossed his mind, but this would have been a really odd prank of sorts, and Scar wasn’t the person to do so anyway.

Still looking for the builder, Xisuma walked off in the direction of the outskirts of the jungle. However, he only managed to take a few steps before he could hear leaves rustling behind him.

“Scar? What ar-“

_Shk._

Pain shot through Xisuma as a sword did the same. A sharp diamond blade appeared in front of his eyes, struck through his chest, coming out where his yellow chestplate ended, just below his ribcage.

“I…Gh-…”, he sputtered, unable to take a step forwards or backwards. The wielder of the sword still pressed on, the handle lodged into X’s back.

Blood dripped to the ground as Xisuma heard his heart beating in his ears. A searing pain spread through his body as poison from the sword started seeping into his veins, numbing his limbs and draining his life energy. _What is going on? Where… is Scar…?_

Xisuma tried to twist his head around to catch a glimpse of whoever was stabbing him, but didn’t quite manage to do so before his vision started to go black at the borders. He was nauseous, and could quite literally feel his life leaving him. He heard more rustling Soon enough, his knees gave in, and as he was no longer being forced upright by the wielder of the sword he slowly sank, diamond sword still firmly lodged into his chest.

The sword had done a lot of damage, and the poison had almost managed to finish him off, but not quite. He was on the brink of death, any minimal amount of damage more and he would die and respawn, and maybe be able to figure out what was going on and where Scar was and-

But nothing happened. Xisuma’s arms were growing numb and cold, a feeling like static creeping up his fingers and arms, radiating from his toes up to his knees, until he couldn't feel them anymore at all. He saw spots, his vision becoming more and more blurry and spinning. Somehow, he was lying on the ground, despite not remembering falling down. He heard faint laughter, mocking and eerily familiar, but his brain couldn't come up with where he had heard it before.

“Third time’s the charm, right?” A sneering voice whispered right into his ear.

Once more, Xisuma tried to get a look at his attacker, weakly lifting his head up despite his muscles protesting and a painful singe shooting through the wound in his chest. But it was no good. Blinded by the bright sunlight shining through the leaves, Xisuma's world went entirely white, and then, black.

"...-ma.... -isuma-...?"

Xisuma vaguely came back to his senses as he heard a voice call his name. The voice was very close by. Extremely close. In fact, it sounded like it was right inside his head.

"Xisuma, can you hear me?"

He blinked open his eyes, facing darkness and dirt. He was lying face-down on the floor, it seemed. His chest was aching, and his muscles felt so weak he was sure he couldn't even move them if he wanted to. He groaned lightly, partially from pain, partially in response to the voice in his head. 

_Voice_. 

"It seems you have woken up, good. Your vital signs are critically low, Xisuma."

A grimacing smile pulled at the corners of X's mouth. _They sure are, aren't they?_ He definitely felt like it. The voice in his head, however... He knew it. It was a familiar, soothing voice. Pleasant. Never raising his tone, never rude. He knew who this was, he just hadn't expected to hear him - at all. But especially not in this situation. 

_VEGA?_

What happened?

"V-...?", Xisuma mumbled, before he had to interrupt himself because drawing a breath _hurt_. He didn't have a sword in his chest anymore, but the wound was very much still there and it was sending scorching hot pain through his system. He squeezed his eyes shut and gritted his teeth, unable to ask the voice in his head more. 

Or in his helmet, presumably.

"I'm sure you are wondering why I am here. May I explain?", VEGA asked him, his voice calming down Xisuma's nerves, like it always used to do, all those years back.

He nodded weakly, helmet scraping against the dirt floor. He could swear he was hearing voices somewhere closeby, outside of his helmet, but they were slurring together and he couldn't make out what they were saying. It was easier to listen to VEGA’s clear voice.

"Before you left, we set up a system in your helmet so I could keep track of your vitals. I apologize for not telling you, but the Slayer and I agreed that I would only activate in case of emergency." He paused, giving Xisuma's tired brain a second to take it all in. So VEGA, who had practically raised him alongside the Slayer - his dad - had been with him all along? That sure was... Something he hadn't expected. It made sense, though, he supposed. He took another shaky breath, then hummed in agreement.

"Tis an... an emergency, then...?" He mumbled. He tried to move his arms, but couldn't. Something sharp and painful was biting into the skin of his arms, and he quickly stopped trying to move. He felt his blood pumping through his veins, which was something one wasn't usually supposed to feel. And yet he also felt numb. This wasn't good. 

"Your vital signs have been at critical health for more than an hour now, and my scans suggest you have been poisoned."

_Poisoned_? How would he have gotten poisoned?

"I have alerted the Doomslayer to your situation. He will arrive and come to your aid shortly.", VEGA continued.

Xisuma audibly gasped, which made him go into a coughing fit. He tasted blood in his mouth as he tried to calm down, not wanting to hurt his chest more than it already was.

"He's... he's coming? Here? Dad-...?" Confused, he shuffled around, trying to take in where 'here' was to begin with. A burning sensation shot through his muscles, and he whined, immediately stopping the movement. 

VEGA confirmed. "Yes. The portal to your world is currently being calculated and will open shortly, and I-"

"Hey, you! Who do you think you're talking to?" A sneering voice cut into their conversation, outside of his helmet.

Xisuma recognized _that_ voice, too, and this time it wasn't a pleasant surprise.

\---

“Hey, are you deaf? Who the fuck have you been talking to?”

Brad used his boot to shuffle it under his prisoner’s shoulder, and kick him over onto his back. He groaned in pain at the movement, and Brad could see his blood staining the dirt below him. He grinned. 

It felt good to finally have gotten a grip on this guy. Brad had encountered him before - back then, when they had still been right on their target’s trail, back when it had still been the full group. This guy had stood in their way, alone. Tried to talk to them. Tried to reason with them. Somehow, he had always evaded their grasp and swords. 

But, no more of that. This time, he couldn’t have cheated death, because Brad had made sure not to kill him. Just…. almost. Not enough to make his weird anti-death magic trigger, but enough to knock him out and kidnap him.

And, of course, to get a little revenge on him for getting the better of him back then. 

For good measure, Brad kicked his side again, then let his heavy boot come to rest on top of his hostage’s chest. Just right next to the wound his sword had inflicted on him, square on his stupid yellow armor. 

Brad watched with satisfaction as the helmeted man’s (?) eyes widened in pain, then tried to focus on his face. He seemed to recognize him, as his brows furrowed together. 

“Yeah, that’s right-” Brad started and leaned forwards as his grin grew wider, putting more weight onto the man's chest. “-It’s me. Bet’cha didn’t expect to see any of us so soon again, eh?”

The hostage didn't answer but Brad could hear him wheeze, and ground his heel a little bit further into his chest. The fallen admin's eyes were shifting from left to right, but he seemed to be looking right through Brad. He seemed unfocused, starting to mutter something into his helmet.

"Mmhn... Vega, who's this...?"

He was silent for a minute, seemingly distracted. Brad furrowed his brows. 

"...Mno, I know him.... jus'... from where....? D'you know who-... who this is, Vega...? Don' like his face...."

Brad clicked his tongue impatiently and bent down to grab the helmet, once again shifting more weight onto his hostage. He idly wondered if the guy would get any cracked ribs from it. With a rough motion, he yanked the helmet free from the man's head, letting it clatter to the floor carelessly a few blocks over. 

"Ey, if you've got a problem, say it to my face." He demanded, his grin widening as he saw the panicked look in the man's eyes. He started breathing quicker, even gagging and choking occasionally. 

He didn't seem like he would answer Brad any time soon, so Brad just deftly kicked him in the ribs once more for good measure and stepped back. The poison from the vines he was tied up with would do its job well enough. However, he stopped as something fell out of the man's pocket. 

It was his communicator.

"Hey, suckers, look at what I’ve got here!" Brad exclaimed as he returned to his fellow hunters, waving the communicator around in his hand.


	2. Allies Incoming.

"Basically, trying to avoid a three by three area of the same texture is a good rule. In this stone, you can mix it with cobble, andesite, gravel, and dead corals for variation." 

Scar dug a few blocks out of the wall he and Herobrine were standing before, and proceeded to throw a few of the materials he'd mentioned into the gap. Herobrine watched intently, nodding along and writing things down in his notebook. A bee bumbled past him, bopping into his shoulder with a gentle buzz before continuing to a flower. 

He and Scar were standing in a hollow in the hill of a Birch forest, a small, hidden, tucked away area Herobrine had built a small home for himself in. Scar had come all the way from his base on the other side of the ocean to teach him some building tips and tricks, and Herobrine was grateful for it; he'd been having some troubles trying to detail a nice tunnel he'd dug to have a back door to his home. It was almost no time at all before the tunnel had transformed into a thing of beauty. Quite frankly, it put Herobrine's own building to shame, yet he couldn't be mad; it was amazing.

Scar went on, now explaining shape variation using slabs, stairs and walls, seemingly out of nowhere constructing a stalagmite to demonstrate the use of them.

"There's fewer textures to choose from with these blocks, but you can still get it looking good!" Scar explained, suddenly taking out some iron bars and sticking one right on the tip of the stone spike. A sudden buzz from Scar's pocket made them both jump, and Scar shrugged after a moment and continued on.

"Generally the way caves form, you'll have a stalagmite along with a stalactite, one drips down onto the other, you see? Then some of them would have merged into columns."

"Ooooh!" Scar grinned when he saw the wondrous look on his friend's face. Between the scruffy look and shy demeanour, it was so oddly adorable in spite of the infamous unnerving white stare. He chuckled, then held the materials he was holding out to Herobrine.

"Want to try? We can build something here!" Scar hopped over to a part that looked ripe for a feature, then beckoned Herobrine over. Herobrine looked down, then placed a bit of stone before looking back to Scar for encouragement. The builder nodded and smiled, urging Herobrine to begin placing more blocks. A few minutes passed until he stepped back to inspect his handiwork, and Scar raised an eyebrow when he noticed it had rotational symmetry on 6 sides. How did he even manage that?

"That's a good start! Try to avoid symmetry though, it's rare to find that in nature."

"So you could say it's False?" Herobrine suggested quietly, with a look of smug amusement. Scar blinked, then rubbed the bridge of his nose when the pun sunk in.

He quickly turned and sat down on a rock as Herobrine giggled to himself before joining him. The two shared a moment of silence and a few golden carrots, then Scar took out his communicator.

"May as well see what it was." He stated, turning it on. His face dropped into a frown as he read the message, before he presented the screen to Herobrine.

**< Xisuma > GoodTimeWithScar>** Sure thing, I’ll be over in a sec!

"Why would he be coming over? It sounds like I asked him to come here or something? Did I do that, Hero?" Herobrine considered Scar's question, then pulled his own communicator device out.

**<** **!-̠̤̮̜̫I͕̤͕͡€̢̯̮̻̯®̲°͇̪͚̻̳̥͞ &͉̳͖̫͙͘r͚͉|̶̳̭͔̩̤π̗̠̯£̗** ** > Xisuma>** I'm with Scar right now. Did he ask you to come? He doesn't seem to think he did.

 **< Xisuma > ** **!-̠̤̮̜̫I͕̤͕͡€̢̯̮̻̯®̲°͇̪͚̻̳̥͞ &͉̳͖̫͙͘r͚͉|̶̳̭͔̩̤π̗̠̯£̗** **>** he aint coming

 **< Xisuma > ** **!-̠̤̮̜̫I͕̤͕͡€̢̯̮̻̯®̲°͇̪͚̻̳̥͞ &͉̳͖̫͙͘r͚͉|̶̳̭͔̩̤π̗̠̯£̗** **>** come get him

 **< Xisuma > ** **!-̠̤̮̜̫I͕̤͕͡€̢̯̮̻̯®̲°͇̪͚̻̳̥͞ &͉̳͖̫͙͘r͚͉|̶̳̭͔̩̤π̗̠̯£̗** **>** demon

Herobrine chucked the device away from him, not even realising his breathing rate had increased. Scar was watching him with worry creasing his face.

"Is… everything alright?" He asked.

"They're back…" Herobrine rasped, his breathing quickening. Scar looked confused for a moment, before horrified realization dawned on his face.

"H...how?" He stuttered. "How would they… did they…" A wave of painful memories reared themselves in Scar's brain, and he pushed them down to prevent himself from hyperventilating. Herobrine gulped, then closed his eyes and slowed his breathing. They'd defeated them once. They can do it again. The hunters were much less in number now, especially with the leader gone.

 _What if he had ret-_

"I'm going to go get him," Herobrine stated before any more doubts and worries turned him into another anxiety-ridden puddle. Scar's eyes went wide.

"Huh?"

"X. I'm going to go there. Help. You know…" Herobrine struggled around to find the words.

"He… helped me? I help him because… right? Good thing? Ja." He got to his feet, only for Scar to grab his ankle.

"Please don't! This could be a trap, you know!" He looked Herobrine in the eye, only to be forced to break eye contact by the involuntary shudder that shot through his body. Herobrine gazed down at him sadly, then smiled.

"They couldn't kill me when I was… weak. I'm better now." 

With that, he pulled out of Scar's grasp and spun around, going over to grab his communicator. On the screen a message of numbers was present. Coordinates. They wanted him to come. With that, Herobrine sprinted to the portal and disappeared into the swirls, leaving Scar worriedly staring at where he once was. 

"Please be okay."

\--

The Doomslayer stepped out of the portal, Shotgun at the ready. He took a moment to look around himself as VEGA closed the blue portal behind him. The landscape was different from the last world he had visited his son in, but it had the same bright colors and peaceful air around it. He was on a small island, mostly made up of a sandy shore, and there was a swirly purple portal on it, although last time he had visited, Xisuma had strongly advised against going through such portals. 

"I am displaying the coordinates of Xisuma's communicator on your HUD, along with his vitals."

The Doomslayer cracked his neck from side to side, then set into motion. A sign on a chest informed him of the existence of boats, and he gladly took one from said chest. However, as he put it down into the water, it suddenly looked very.... small. He decided to cram himself into it anyways, bent on wasting as little time as possible. After all, his son needed help. A quick look at his vitals told the Doomslayer that Xisuma only had half a heart of his health bar left. The boat creaked as he hopped in, shotgun laid across his lap, knees sticking out. 

Unfazed, he started rowing. 

He headed West as fast as he could, pulling the oars through the ocean water as if it were nothing. The planks were making worrying noises, already starting to splinter under the strain. The Doomslayer hoped they would at least hold up until he passed the ocean, but VEGA informed him otherwise. 

"Scans indicate this structure is not going to last long if you keep up your current pace. I suggest you-"

**_CRRRKKKK_ **

With a disgusting grating noise, the tiny boat burst apart as the Doomslayer had hit the rocky shore of a large island head-on. For a second, he sat there, dumbfounded, oars still in his hands, broken wood planks around him. Then he got up, irritated, and flung the now useless oars into the ocean. They made a distant, not very satisfying 'splsh' noise. Somehow, that didn't help his nerves at all.

"You are currently on the central island of the overworld. Please proceed west to get to Xisuma as quickly as possible." VEGAs voice was even as usual, but the Doomslayer knew him well enough to tell he was worried as well, if his choice of words was anything to go by. 

He gave a short glance to the island in question - which was mostly made of dark purple-ish ground and had a colorful assortment of buildings on it - then simply proceeded west on foot. As he reached the shore of the island, he just kept walking, soon being swallowed by the ocean. VEGA wordlessly adjusted his helmet so he wouldn't run out of air underwater, and the Slayer continued his path uninterrupted. 

A few zombie-like creatures swam up to him. He tried to remember if Xisuma had said anything about them last time. They seemed hostile, and only groaned mindlessly as they approached him. He saw no recognition in their eyes, so the creatures were dealt with in swift fashion. They dissipated as soon as their heads were removed from their bodies by his bare hands. Nothing came up in the chat Xisuma had installed into his helmet last time for him to access, so apparently he had been right in his assumption that these were enemies. He continued his path. 

As he marched on, setting one foot in front of the other underwater, his worry for his son only grew. So did his rage. What had happened to him? Who was hurting him? VEGA has said that Xisuma had encountered enemies, but hadn't been able to tell who that was. Demons? Makyr? No, wait, what were his enemies in this world again? Whoever it was, they would soon regret ever laying a finger on the Slayer's son.

He tapped on his visor twice, asking VEGA for any new updates on Xisuma's situation. 

"I have... I have talked to Xisuma just now.", came the answer. The Slayer could sense barely repressed distress in his AI companions voice and increased his speed as well as he could. "He sounded... scared. I did not manage to determine who his attackers were, but he seemed to know them. He is currently being held hostage, so i assume they will not kill him."

A low growl rose in the Slayer's throat as he heaved himself onto shore, not bothering to shake off the water and instead starting to make his way across a savannah-like landscape.

"However, they have removed the helmet from Xisuma, therefore I cannot talk to him or supervise his vitals anymore. I... I apologize." The Slayer had rarely heard VEGA sound this sad. He fell into a swift jog, each step bringing him closer to his son. The Slayer knew how much trouble Xisuma had breathing without his helmet in this atmosphere. 

"I am sure i don't need to tell you how urgent this situation is." VEGA seemed to agree. He stayed silent for a moment, then added in a much quieter voice: "...I hope he is alright."


	3. Opposing Forces Meet

Tree after tree flew past him as he sprinted through the thick growth of the jungle. Behind him, the shape of the hexagonal portal Xisuma had constructed disappeared behind a growing wall of leaves, and normally Herobrine would stop and chuckle over the coincidental building styles.

But now was not the time.

Herobrine kept running, ignoring the growing pain in his side from the injury that he'd suffered so long ago. Ignoring the sting of the air grating past his scarred throat. His pain didn't matter. He had to get to X.

He glanced down to the screen of his communicator, noting that he was closing in on the trap the hunters had laid, baited with his friend. He knew he was running straight into it, but he didn't care. The traps in the past never worked, why would they work now?

The trees ahead thinned into a clearing, and Herobrine could see shapes moving around. Even more strongly, he could feel the sickeningly familiar presence of the ones who had stalked him for so long. Once such a feeling would’ve struck fear into his heart. Now it was only rage. Rage that was displayed in the fiery inferno that followed him out of the jungle underbrush, spreading behind him off the edge of his elytra, like hellfire wings of the demon they believed him to be.

They scattered, screaming in fear. Evidently they had not prepared for such an offensive.

Herobrine zeroed in on the one that was closest to the sprawled yellow form of Xisuma. With a quick twist, he shot towards the hunter, fists outstretched and steeped in flame. The hunter barely had time to even flinch before they connected, sending them both slamming into a tree. He grunted in pain, blood splattering from his mouth, then flopped over onto his side, wheezing for air. Herobrine stood and turned around as the rest of the hunters milled about in alarm, not knowing how to react at all to this newly confident and no longer half-starved Herobrine who had come to confront them. Herobrine himself was somewhat stuck on what to do next. That hunter? Or that hunter? Which one? He had to make them pay for what they did. What they did... to  _ him _ .

A tiny voice of reason told him to go to Xisuma first, but it was lost in the roaring flames of vengeful rage. Fist connected with the crooked nose of a face contorted into a permanent leer, bending it ever more out of shape. Fire crackled around two more figures, driving them away from him. Every hit felt so good, like years of repressed fury being released at once.

It was.

**_LIBERATING_ ** _. _

\--

The Doomslayer was shifting from a jog into a sprint as he approached the coordinates VEGA was projecting onto the HUD of his helmet. He was breaking through leaves and foliage, not caring about the branches snapping on his armor. By now, he was close to the point where Xisuma was supposed to be now. A knot of fear and rage was in his stomach, he was scared for how he would find his son. VEGA had said his vital signs were weak, and that he was barely conscious. All kinds of scenarios shot through the Slayers head, and Xisuma's 5-year old face came up in his memories, tiny and scared. He was older now, but he would always be the Slayers son. And he needed to protect his son.. 

"I am detecting various life signals around him.", VEGA supplied, now that they were getting closer. "Most of which are human."

The Slayer did a double take on VEGAS words as he swerved around a tree, then tilted his head ever so slightly.  _ Most _ ?

"There is one... being that refuses to be categorized. It emits high levels of energy, though."

Dread dropped into the Slayers stomach. He thought of all the times Xisuma and Evil X had close calls with demons, and had gotten hurt before he had managed to get to them. He doubled his efforts, forcing his legs to go even faster, leaving heavy footprints in the dirt behind him. 

Finally, he broke through the last bit of leaves, coming to an abrupt halt at the sight before him. 

His eyes instantly spotted Xisuma. He was in the far back of the clearing, lying on the floor. The Doomslayer saw his chest rise and fall heavily, but he wasn't moving. His yellow armor was new, but the Slayer could only focus on how it was contrasting the red blood that was spread all over Xisuma's chest. He seemed to be tied up, as well. His helmet was missing from his head, laying a few metres away on the ground, beat up and abandoned. In his mind, he could almost hear Xisuma's labored breathing, even though he was still far away. Seething hatred filled the Slayer at the sight, and he gripped his Shotgun tighter as his eyes wandered over the rest of the scene, quickly taking it all in. 

His sight immediately landed on a single figure. 

The... being was standing in front of Xisuma, back turned to the Slayer. Fire was flickering around it's hands, the heat being even noticeable from far away. It  _ looked  _ human by all standards - not particularly tall or short, kind of a scrawny physique, and scraggy brown hair. However, the Slayer instantly  _ knew  _ that this was not a human. Far from it, actually. The being - demon? - let the fire around its hands flare up again, pointing it at the remaining men in the clearing. 

They were screaming and yelling, struggling to get away from the demon. It was just a handful of them, all wearing similar dark armor. Also, almost all of them were hurt. One had a bloody nose that was most definitely broken, another was holding his side as he was trying to limp away. The Slayer could see burn marks on their skin, clearly caused by the uncanny fire the demon was possessing. The men were scampering away, one of them supporting his friend, and quickly, they all disappeared into the treeline. 

The Slayer could see the demon breathing heavily, fire still licking at its hands. Then, it was turning towards Xisuma, slowly. 

That was  _ it _ . 

Before the demon could make even one step towards his son, the Slayer started approaching it, cocking his shotgun with rage seeping into his every movement, purposefully making himself known. He knew he couldn't shoot at this range without endangering Xisuma, but he also knew the effect his appearance had on most demons. They feared him and his hatred. And right now, the air was basically bristling with it. He would  _ not  _ let this demon lay a single finger on his son, whom he had sworn to protect. 

His steps were heavy and full of purpose, his armored boots hitting the ground a lot harder than they needed to. He could barely restrain his anger as he made his way onto the clearing, and he wanted this demon to  _ know it _ .

The Demon spun around, and his blood turned to ice at the sight before him. The anger in him instantly fizzled out, to be replaced by fear. Something had emerged from the trees - something that towered over his head, plated in thick armour, and toting some object that was pointed straight at him. Focusing on the monster was a mistake; the sheer aura was enough to flood Herobrine's senses, making him want to cover his ears and curl into a ball with his eyes squeezed shut. Yet, he didn't. Xisuma's weakening presence was behind him, keeping him rooted in place. Instantly he realised his mistake; why had he focused on wrath instead of getting X out of there? Of course the hunters would have some trick to pull on him! Herobrine mentally kicked himself for acting so idiotic before shakily raising his flaming hands. He had to protect the admin, this nightmare would not hurt his friend! 

The object was raised towards him, and he stepped back, crouching slightly so as to cover Xisuma better. He didn't know what the object was, other than some sort of weapon. But if it was to be used, it would be against him, not Xisuma. The weapon made a terrifying clicking noise, one that bored deep into Herobrine's core, and finally, he snapped.

With a scream of pure terror, Herobrine unleashed everything he had into an almost solid wall of flame, engulfing the monstrous figure in front of him. He hoped and prayed it would be enough, even if to just drive the beast away from them. Destroying it was most certainly out of the question; the blinding presence of it drowned out everything else around him.

It was not receding. In fact, it was coming  _ closer _ . The burning wall parted as the huge shape stepped through, almost as if it was unaware of the flames licking around it. Herobrine's hands shook, numb with the sustained attack, and the fire diminished into glowing embers before fizzling out completely. He felt himself take an involuntary step back as his adversary came closer, until they were face to face. Or rather, face to chest. For a brief moment, the air was still. Then a huge hand shot out and closed tightly around Herobrine's neck. He gasped as he felt his feet get lifted off the ground, and his hands flew to grasp helplessly at the armoured glove that was squeezing his throat shut. His lungs burned as he desperately tried to draw in air, and he kicked out to try and wriggle free.

It was no use. The monster held him so they were eye to eye, and Herobrine watched as the reflection of his face in the visor swam and darkened as he began to lose his grasp on consciousness. He could feel the hidden gaze of this beast boring into him from behind the thick helmet, and he clawed at the tight grip, tears beginning to stream from his eyes as he fought for his freedom. Then it faltered very slightly. 

The next thing Herobrine knew was the wind rushing past his face. His oxygen-depleted brain did not have the capacity to understand what was going on. Until he hit something hard. A collarbone snapped from the shock of the impact, flooding his consciousness with pain that only escalated as he hit the floor. Then finally, he was still, sucking in huge lungfuls of air and staring at the leaves above him, bewildered but also… relieved?

He was alive.

Xisuma wouldn't be.

No… please no…

\--

Xisuma somewhat came around as he felt heat on the bare skin of his face, stinging and burning him. Weary, he blinked and tried to focus his sight, but it was no good. Blinding light filled his eyes and he had to close them again, his head spinning wildly. What was going on? 

Noises hurt his ears, not filtered out by his helmet anymore. He was drawing in a ragged breath, struggling to get air into his lungs, but it was too hot and too much and full of smoke and ash and his lungs refused to accept it. He wanted to cough, but he was too weak, so he just gagged. The wound on his chest sent ripples of pain through him at the movement, and he would have keeled over if he hadn’t been already lying on the floor. He tried to take another breath. Dark, thundering footsteps were heard, but Xisuma's brain didn't quite manage to register them properly. He was dizzy, the poison effect still taking its toll on him. 

He wouldn’t havenoticed the heat dying down if the temperature hadn't suddenly dropped and made him shiver in surprise. Another wave of pain washed over him, making colorful splotches dancing across his vision even with his eyes closed shut. He tried to focus on not passing out again. What was happening? 

He thought he heard gagging and wheezing sounds, but it was drowned out by the buzzing in his head and the feeling of his life force leaving him as he was still bleeding heavily. Xisuma could feel the warm blood on his chest as his feet and hands were slowly growing cold and numb. 

He heard a distant 'thud', accompanied by cracking branches and leaves rustling somewhere, yet he could absolutely not categorize any of it. As he struggled to draw another breath, he tried opening his eyes again. His vision was blurry and unfocused, and he could see a dark, undefined figure approaching him. It was huge. However, Xisuma couldn't bring himself to be scared. Was he too out of it? He vaguely had the thought of being about to pass out again, when he felt himself being picked up.

He gritted his teeth as his injury was jostled, barely noticing that his hands had been untied. He was definitely too weak to move on his own, so he just tried to take more air into his lungs as he waited for the pain to pass somewhat. Breathing hurt. Hesitantly, he tried to open his eyes again, but his senses failed him. Shapes were spinning wildly, blurry and unfocused, and it was all a bit much for him so he closed them again. He realized that whoever had picked him up was being very careful with him. Xisuma barely registered any movement as the person took some steps. Who was that? He felt himself being held very solidly. Who of the hermits would be tall enough to hold him like this?

He wheezed as his lungs once more failed to take in air, muscles too weak to cough. Something was being put onto his head. He had no power to lean into it, but the extremely familiar feeling of his helmet slipping onto his head made him sigh in relief. Breathing became easier, and some of his lightheadedness went away as he was now able to take in air without too much trouble. Well, unless you counted the huge wound on his chest. That still hurt. His dizziness faded away somewhat, and was replaced by a deep, leaden tiredness. It was seeping into his very bones, and darkness was pulling on the edges of his consciousness. VEGA's soothing voice was talking to him, but he did not register a single word of it, all becoming a distant blur. 

Xisuma felt a hand being very gently placed on the top of his head. It was familiar, nostalgic even. X sighed as he leaned into the touch. He finally was safe, and allowed the darkness to take him over.


	4. Hunted Again

It took a long while for Herobrine to move from the painfully crumpled heap he'd landed in. He groaned and rubbed his head, wincing as the fractured and broken bones moved. With a sigh, he slowly got to his feet, leaning against the tree for support. Fatigue crashed over him, making him sway slightly, but he squeezed his eyes shut and waited for it to pass.

While the dizziness slowly went away, Herobrine focused on the energies around him, scouting his surroundings to figure out his next action. The air was thick with the almost suffocating plants that weaved themselves together into the thick jungle, and some small jungle animals flitted in and out of the undergrowth, mostly avoiding the area thanks to the commotion that had occurred. However, not a single human was to be found, which both relieved and frightened Herobrine. On the one hand, the hunters were gone from the area. On the other, so was Xisuma. He'd failed to protect his friend. 

Herobrine sat back down and buried his face in his hands, stifling a sob that jolted his broken collarbone and made him wince. He'd been taken or killed by that… monster. He told himself that X could just respawn, but that still made it no less difficult. Who knows what that creature did to him, or what effects it would have afterwards. Would X hate him for failing to prevent it? For getting so caught in taking revenge he forgot to be a good friend?

The presence of the monster was so strong he could still feel wisps of it clinging to the leaves of the jungle. He stoutly ignored it, instead just sitting there, refusing to think of anything. Yet it still plagued his senses. If anything it was getting stron-

It was getting stronger.

Herobrine's eyes snapped open and he shot to his feet. His heart was racing and he looked around, all his thoughts focused on the pure rage that was smashing through the trees towards him. He couldn't even hear it yet, but the sound of breaking branches and tearing leaves rang through his mind as he turned and fled.

There wasn't even a destination in mind, it just had to be away from that thing. Yet no matter where he went, it was always on his trail, almost like it could sense where he was. Perhaps it could. That would be a new one, someone with the same sixth sense he had. Just a shame it had to be an enemy, and one that would have no trouble ripping him limb from limb on top of that.

Herobrine was not looking forward to piecing himself back together if the monster caught him, but it seemed to be an inevitability. No matter how far he ran, it was always just a little bit closer. 

He'd never wanted to feel this feeling again.

Helplessly hunted down by an enemy he could not possibly fight.

He thought he was done with that.

How history repeats itself…

Herobrine's limbs finally gave out as he jumped to scramble over a hill in hopes of slowing his pursuer down. They flopped around uselessly as he slid back to the ground and laid sprawled, gasping for air. His scarred ribs ached, and his breathing hurt his throat. It almost obscured the horrific crack of branches breaking behind him. Almost. 

Herobrine closed his eyes as the footsteps boomed over to him.

\--

When Xisuma woke back up, he was alone.

His head was spinning as he gingerly sat up, propping himself up as to get his bearings first. He found himself on a small clearing in the jungle, half leaning against a tree trunk. Staring at his hands, he took a minute to process what was going on. His chest still hurt, very much so. Xisuma noticed it was wrapped in thick, clean bandages, tightly encompassing him where he would usually wear his armor. As he looked down, he noticed his arms were tightly wrapped as well. The bandaging was very tidy and professionally done, maybe even a little too tight, as if the person who gave him first aid wanted to make sure he was well cared for. His muscles were straining, and every breath hurt. Xisuma checked his health bar, and was surprised to see it at a stable 5 hearts. After being poisoned, he would have thought he would only have half a heart left or something like that. 

_ Have they given me a healing potion? _

At least his helmet was securely in place on his head again, allowing him to breathe as freely as one could after being recently impaled by a sword. He shuddered. His chestplate laid near him, bloodied, but being set down with care. Or as much care as the person could have mustered, considering the huge bloody handprints on it. X just assumed it was  _ his  _ blood. He must be missing quite an amount of it, as he still felt dizzy and his view started to spin whenever he moved his head. 

However, considering who had saved him, it might as well be anyone else's blood. 

The Doomslayer, the Hellwalker, the One that stood against the horde. 

_ Dad. _

Xisuma sighed as he remembered his dad picking him up and carrying him away. Yeah, it couldn't have been anyone else. He vaguely remembered speaking with VEGA, and his dad had always been there for him when he needed him most, always saved him when he had gotten into sticky situations as a kid. And what a sticky situation this was!

Xisuma simply couldn't believe the Herobrine hunters were back on his server. As far as he knew, they had been sent away via command block when they were still in season 6, so why on earth would they show up now, in the next world? Hadn't they put Herobrine through enough already? He remembered his last few encounters with the hunters, two of which had also ended with a sword in his chest. Judging by the voice and sneering remarks, it must've been the same hunter even. Why had they come back? Were they back to hunting Herobrine? Also, what would the Doomslayer do once he came across them? Xisuma knew full well his father wouldn't hurt humans, but he was still a little worried. 

"Vega?" He asked, voice full of uncertainty and hoarse from recent abuse by breathing the overworld air. 

He heard a soft ‘ding’ noise being played, familiar from his childhood. The VEGA logo flickered on at the side of the HUD in his helmet visor.

"Glad to see you awake, Xisuma. Would you like me to tell you about your status?"

"...No, I know I feel horrible." Xisuma ached as he inched upwards, propping his body up more on the trunk of the tree. He was infinitely relieved to hear VEGAs voice again. 

He tried to get an overview of the clearing he was on. Nothing of note was in his sight, except the fact that the dirt in front of him was riddled with heavy footprints from boots way larger than his own. He could see a little blood here and there, but other than that, there was nothing. It was eerily quiet as well. In the jungle, you could usually hear parrots squawking and all sorts of life rustling the many leaves and bushes, but right now, Xisuma barely heard anything. He looked upwards. Through the canopy, he could see the sun shining down, almost mocking his situation. A large, bright white building loomed over the trees, and Xisuma recognized the dark terracotta and tasty honey details as part of his base. He assumed that the Doomslayer had brought him to safety, gave him first aid, and then.... Well, where was he? Why wouldn't he be with Xisuma?

A knot formed in Xisumas stomach as he realized that maybe his Dad was going after the Herobrine Hunters after all. Last time he had visited him, Xisuma had told him very clearly not to go after any of the hermits, seeing as they were all players and, more importantly, his friends. But would Dad hold to the same rules when facing people who had kidnapped his son and quite literally stabbed Xisuma? Of course, the Hunters were absolute scumbags, and Xisuma wanted to see them gone, preferably sooner than later, but.... well, his father had a tendency to get rather violent. And as much as the Hunters deserved to get banished from this world -  _ his  _ world, Xisuma thought - he would rather not have his father tear them limb from limb. They were humans, after all.

Worry crinkled Xisuma's brow as he looked up. "VEGA, where's-... where's dad?"

He hoped the answer wasn't what he was dreading. 

However, the answer was a lot worse, actually. 

"After making sure you were stable, the Doomslayer has left to kill the one that has attacked you," VEGA informed him, helpful and polite as ever. 

"Ah see, that's just what I feared... Look, I despise them, they've caused us enough sorrow, but VEGA, you gotta tell him they're-.... wait, did you say 'one'?"

"Yes, the demon."

"...." Xisuma was stunned for a second, not having expected that answer. "I-....  _ demon _ ?" What did he mean, ‘ _ demon’ _ ? There weren't any demons on the server! This world only had mobs like Zombies or Skeletons! Creepers weren't exactly demon-like! Had his dad gone to the nether, of all places?

"When we arrived at the scene, a creature was shooting fire everywhere, driving off the humans. The Doomslayer is currently hunting it down."

"Fire-... was there a bla-" Xisuma's eyes went wide and he visibly paled, clutching his chest. " _ Wait, did it have white eyes? _ "

"Yes."

Xisuma's heart dropped, and he struggled to get up and stand as quickly as possible, nearly keeling over from the sudden burst of pain that spread through his chest as he used his arms to pull himself up on the tree. He felt dizzy, and not just from his injuries.  _ Oh,  _ _ god _ _. _

"VEGA, that's not a  _ demon _ !" Panic was coloring Xisuma's voice. VEGA could see his heart rate sky-rocketing, and was silent for a moment as he processed Xisuma's rising anxiety.

Before the AI could say anything, though, Xisuma started staggering towards the jungle again, away from his base.

"...Where are you going, Xisuma? What do you mean?"

Xisuma didn't answer.

Herobrine. His dad was hunting  _ Herobrine _ . 

His breathing was short and shallow as he felt dread rising into his chest, adrenaline pumping through his veins. 

_ This can't be happening! _

“Xisuma, where are you going? It’s best not to move this much considering your injuries.”

"Herobrine."

"...Please elaborate?"

"That's Herobrine he's after. He's my friend." Xisuma stumbled and had to stop himself from falling by holding onto a tree, but continued as quickly as possible. HIe breathing grew more and more labored, but he ignored the searing pain that was nestled in his chest and just kept putting one foot in front of the other. 

"VEGA, tell me where he is right now."

VEGA was silent. His circular logo was rotating slowly, something X had always taken as him thinking or processing. Coordinates flickered on on his HUD. They were moving away from him at a steady, fairly fast pace. He groaned. 

"Are these Dad's coordinates?"

"...Affirmative." VEGA confirmed. His robotic voice was clear as always, but Xisuma could tell he was distressed. "This demon is your friend?"

"He's not a  _ demon _ .", Xisuma immediately denied, then hesitated. Was he? Either way, It didn't really matter. "He's-... Well, he's a friend of ours. Tell dad to stop, VEGA,  _ please _ ."

He tripped over a few vines, stumbling forward. His vision was swimming. His left hand was still clutched at his chest, and he felt the bandages slowly getting soaked with blood, but he deliberately didn't look at it. He had to focus, get there before dad tore Herobrine apart. Or.... the other way around? He remembered what Hero could do himself, remembered him quite literally ripping out his spine in blind fury and fear. Xisuma shuddered. Some days, he still had nightmares about that. 

Either way, he had to prevent them from fighting, as quickly as possible. 

"VEGA?"

The coords on his HUD didn't stop moving. 

"It..." VEGA paused for another second. This was very uncharacteristic for the AI. Xisuma knew how efficient and to-the-point he was, so whatever was going on, it must be  _ bad _ .

"It appears the Slayer is not listening to me right now."

"... _ What _ ?"

"I tried to explain the situation to him, but he has muted me."

That was indeed bad.

Xisuma stumbled as he doubled his efforts to try and reach Herobrine and his dad before anything bad could happen. He gritted his teeth against another wave of pain as he made his way out of the jungle, the atmosphere still being too quiet. Something broke through the leaves to the right of him, and Xisuma flinched back when he noticed it was a creeper. He had nothing on him, no armor, inventory empty, he didn't even have any form of weapon, he couldn't-...

The creeper  _ ignored  _ him, completely, and just continued it's way past him, disappearing into the jungle quickly. If Xisuma didn't know any better, he'd say it was running away from a cat, but he could see no such creature nearby. A Zombie ran - yes,  _ ran  _ \- past him, behaving similarly. 

Were the mobs....  _ scared _ ? Could that even happen?

Increasingly worried, Xisuma turned back towards the open landscape and tried his best to close in on his dad's coordinates.


	5. Clash of Titans

The Slayer growled as VEGA kept talking to him. Now was not the time. He impulsively muted his companion, only leaving the tracking indicators that VEGA was displaying in his helmet. They suddenly turned off. The Slayer assumed that was VEGA’s way of trying to get his attention, but he didn’t care. 

He was close enough anyways.

Disregarding the tracker, he took long, heavy strides. His trusted shotgun was securely in his hand, loaded and aching to be used. It must be close. The Slayer could practically feel the presence of the demon. It was the same uneasy, powerful energy it had had as it had loomed over Xisuma’s body, nearly killing those humans. Rage was rising in his chest as he thought once more about what this thing could have done to Xisuma, had he not found them when he did. His son had been stabbed and kidnapped, tied up with weird vines snaking all over his arms, thorny and seeped in poison. And then, the weird creepy fire the demon had almost used against Xisuma…. No, this had to be taken care of. This creature was a danger to humanity. And, more importantly, it had hurt his son. 

His keen eyes scanned the shallow hills in front of him. Someone had come through here recently. With the press of a little button on the side of his helmet, he turned on the heat vision filter on his visor - and sure enough, he saw the outline of a humanoid shape, huddled together near some rocks and trees. 

The Slayer grimly started to approach, fingers twitching impatiently on the trigger of his shotgun. 

Two more determined steps took him around the corner, and he was faced with the demon. It was staring up at him with bright white eyes, virtually glowing, completely blank. The demon was shivering slightly as it saw him, almost as if it was scared. 

Rightfully so.

The slayer raised his shotgun, wasting no time and pulling the trigger to shoot the demon at point blank. A shot rang through the air, but the demon had leapt aside at the last second, only a few splinters hitting it in its stomach area. At least it seemed more intelligent than the demons the Slayer was used to facing, he was giving it that.

The demon tried to get some distance between it and the Slayer, but he wasn’t having that. Switching to his Plasma rifle, he started firing, lighting up the landscape with bright electric blue balls of energy. Arcs of electricity were spreading wherever the spheres hit the floor or trees, but the demon did an annoyingly good job at weaving between them. 

He took a second to reload, then started shooting once more, this time scattering his shots around the area instead of trying to hit the demon precisely. 

It did the trick. 

He managed to hit the demon head on in it’s midsection, a blinding flash spreading out for the brink of a second as the energy bullet connected. Blood splattered to the floor, some drops even managing to make their way onto the Slayer’s helmet. Arcs of electricity were running over the demon’s limbs for a second, and stunned it briefly. 

However, this was more than enough time for the slayer to close in on the demon, storing away his rifle in the same movement. 

Seeing as it had no way out, the demon quickly shook off it’s confusion, leaping at the Slayer to land a punch square on his chest. He felt the force behind it reverberating through his armor and bones, knocking the air out of his lungs, but he stood his ground. Reaching out with his arm, he attempted to grab his adversary, but once more it slipped away under and evaded him. The Slayer snarled and ground his heels into the dirt. He was used to fighting much larger enemies. The only human-sized enemies he had encountered so far had been zombies, and they were never this quick - or strong, he thought as he raised a hand to prevent a fireball from hitting his visor. The flames engulfed his gloved hand, and the heat was sizzling on the bare skin of his arms. The pain only enraged him more, however, as he delivered a heavy kick to the demon’s chest. 

It was flung backwards, but quickly staggered back to its feet despite its injuries. It was fast, as well. The Slayer briefly lost it out of his sight, just to feel pain spread over his spine as he was forced to take a few steps forward from the sheer force of the blow. Heat crawled over his skin once more. He never thought such a scrawny figure could muster this much strength, but it would definitely have shattered a humans spine in an instant. Unfortunately for the demon, the Slayer was not much of a human anymore himself, and his back was protected by the praetor suit as always. 

He whirled around. The demon had definitely not been expecting that, staring at him with wide, blank eyes, expression full of dread.

In it’s surprise, the Slayer finally managed to get a grip on the demon. His left closed around his neck, once more, while his right hand reached for the demon’s arm. Heavily armored fingers closed around his thin forearm like a steel vice, and he yanked on the limb, fully intent on tearing it off completely.

However, despite using full force, the arm did not, in fact, tear off - he just about dislocated the shoulder. The Slayer heard a gargled, choked scream from the demon. Growling, he let go of his neck and swiftly extended his arm blade. Like a miniature guillotine, it fell onto his enemies shoulder, with him assuming it would cleave right through it like it had done with countless other demons before. Once more, the Slayer was wrong when the blade slowed down and finally got stuck about 2 thirds down the arm. Fire encompassed both of them when the demon let out a blood curdling scream, the flames snaking their way under his armor even, but the Slayer ignored it and pulled back to bring his blade down again. Finally, with the constant pull of his other hand, he heard bone splintering and muscles tearing and the arm came off, almost bringing the Slayer out of balance with the amount of force he had put in now suddenly released. He dropped the arm, instantly grabbing the demon’s head. 

In one fluid motion, he slammed it against the floor. The impact was heavy, and yet, the demon’s head did not splatter into pieces and bits upon the Slayers brute blunt force. It was still solid and resisting the abuse of being sandwiched between the floor and his hand at great speed. Until it disappeared completely. The Slayer’s hand hit the ground, leaving him kneeling and slightly brought out of his rhythm. Only a flurry of purple particles surrounded him. The fire that had been scorching his skin dispersed, as well.

What had just happened?

Scowling, he looked around, not planning on losing his target now. 

\--

Herobrine was shaking as he cowered in the rotting stump of a tree, his remaining hand clamped over his mouth to stifle any noise that might give away his hiding spot. Behind him, the monster was crashing around, evidently searching for him to finish tearing his body to pieces. He could only hope and pray that he wasn't found.

It had already severely injured him, including an agonizingly painful sequence that involved the savage removal of an entire limb. That was not to mention the gashes, burns, bruises and broken bones that he'd been dealt, along with the lacerations that spread across his stomach, almost threatening to spill his insides out. Herobrine clasped his arm across them, as if trying to uselessly stem the heavy bleeding. Like it would help at all, every part of him was dripping blood it seemed. It was running from his forehead into his eyes, soaking into his hair, welling through his shirt, pouring from his shoulder, splashing on everything around him; this monster was perfectly capable of killing him, and Herobrine was sure it was out to do so.

Yet, more importantly, it had killed Xisuma, he was certain of it. And painfully so. If it only took 3 tries to rip his whole arm off, what could it have done to X? Tears streamed down his face as he bit back another sob. X would never forgive him for leaving him to this… thing.

Instead of forgiveness, Herobrine had decided to get revenge.

And he had tried  _ so hard _ .

Heavy bursts of fire had been shrugged off, the hardest of cracks of the monster's limbs had done nothing, the most forceful of punches and kicks had only just barely dented the thick armour. A flaming strike to the back that had knocked an enderdragon out of the sky in the past had hardly made the beast stumble. Even forcing the hottest of his fire into the tiny gaps in its armour had done nothing.

He was completely outmatched. 

So instead he'd teleported away from its attempts at crushing his skull, and had taken refuge in a rotten tree stump.

Herobrine looked down to see the puddle of blood steadily growing beneath him. His left side felt cold… so cold… he felt cold. His head was ringing, and his other arm was so numb it may as well be missing like his left one.

It hurt… so bad… Herobrine shook away the overwhelming tiredness that was beginning to dim his vision, focusing instead on what new plans he could think of to escape. He might have managed to teleport away from a headache of an experience, but it wouldn't be long until he was found again, and at that point he would not have another chance. He needed to go, now.

Herobrine struggled to his feet.

The stump exploded.

With a loud crash, the Slayer sent his foot through the tree stump, breaking it apart into hundreds of splinters. The demon stumbled backwards, eyes wide, and the Slayer raised his weapon of choice.

The BFG. 

It was heavy even in his toned arms, humming with energy. Green light from its details illuminated the scene, waiting to break free.

After nothing else had worked on the beast, this would surely do the trick. With no hesitation, the Slayer pulled the trigger, and the world burst into sickly green light. A huge, glowing orb of energy shot out, the Slayer taking a second to resist against the familiar recoil force of the weapon. Arcs of energy hissed through the air, connecting to any life forms they could find, vaporizing a few parrots and a zombie that had fallen into a hole.The demon tried to scamper away, but the bristling beams shooting outwards from the orb found their way anyways.

Surely, this would be enough to deal with this pesky demon.

He felt the power of the blast before it connected. Herobrine turned around, his horror growing as he was a ball of bright green death flying right at him. Then the arcing energy off of the bolt stabbed into his chest and shoulders, and he screamed. It was more pain than he had ever felt in his entire life; it was like every single cell in his body was being ripped apart.

The shot itself hit him.

The Slayer let out a long, held breath, BFG still sizzling and hissing in his hands, powering down. The air smelled like burnt metal, and his visor had dimmed against the blinding light of the shot, but now that it had dispersed he could finally see the damage it had done. With grim satisfaction, he noted that not much in the area was left. That was until his eyes fell onto the heap on the floor. 

It was the demon.

Instead of being completely vaporized, it had merely been knocked out momentarily, already blinking up at the trees and regaining its composure. The Slayer frowned. He stared at his BFG, then back to the demon, stunned. He could see green arcs of remaining BFG energy running all over its body. It was crawling across the floor, and the Slayer realized it was picking up its detached arm. Absolutely gobsmacked, he just watched for a few seconds. Blood was running down, staining the ground, as the demon held it's severed arm up to the stump. What was it trying to do? The Slayer almost gasped when he saw the tissue trying to reattach, only to be interrupted by some sort of.... glitching, laced with the green energy of the BFG. 

He had never seen something like this before. The Slayer almost wanted to ask VEGA about it, when he remembered the situation - and Xisuma. How he had laid on the floor, covered in blood, with the demon towering over him. Gritting his teeth at the memory, the Slayer shook his head harshly. This was time to act, not to stop and wonder at an enemies powers. He stored away his BFG. No matter how strong it was, no matter how much it resisted the blasts of his energy weapons, he was sure not even this thing could survive being torn in half by his chainsaw. 

With renewed anger, he revved it up, falling into fast strides as he approached the demon.

  
  


Herobrine blinked, the branches above him swimming in and out of focus. He tried to groan, but even the mere thought of it hurt. Everything hurt. Nothing he could do would stop it from hurting. Yet somehow, he was almost numb. Slowly, Herobrine drew himself off the ground and looked down at himself. Green electricity was crackling around him, as well as the vaguely arm shaped lump off to his side. He reached over and grabbed it, then tried to reattach it back into place, hoping his healing would grab onto the separated flesh and pull it back together. Instead, the green energy arced and burst around the split, and what could only be described as a glitch made him drop the arm altogether. Herobrine whimpered and tried again, only to be met with the same result. Seems he’d have to regrow this one… 

A horrifying sound brought his attention straight back to the life or death situation he’s apparently just forgotten all about. The monster was stomping closer, a machine that was screaming in its hand. Herobrine’s heart stopped. At that, he closed his eyes.

\--

Xisuma's head shot up as he heard a loud, booming and crackling sound. He was currently stumbling through the outskirts of his jungle, a small hill just ahead. As he looked up, he saw green light spreading out from behind it, foreboding and bright even in broad daylight. He gasped, the shock enough to make him trip and fall. Disregarding the pain of his chest injury and scraped-up hands from trying to break the fall, he gathered himself together and started running, as best as he could. 

"VEGA.... was that the BFG?"

He knew his father possessed this weapon. He had seen him use it three or four times maybe, as the Slayer had always tried to keep the more dangerous side from his work away from his boys. But he had seen it. He had seen the immense destruction it could cause in mere seconds, how the beams of light eliminated all life in range immediately. Choking and with a tight feeling in his chest, he clambered up the hill.

"Yes, it seems the Slayer has fired one round from the BFG-9000 towards the de-... your friend."

" _ No _ !" A cry wrought itself out of Xisuma's throat. Desperately, he was heaving himself up the last bit of the hill, only to look down onto the site of destruction. 

The landscape was ruined and scorched, only black earth where once grass had been growing. There was not much left of the trees in the area, and Xisuma couldn't spot a single creature alive, hostile or otherwise. Well, apart from the two human-shaped beings in the very center of the mess. One of them, large and bulky, was moving in on the other. 

Xisuma could hear the revving of a chainsaw, and his blood ran cold.

"NO!" He yelled, sprinting down the hill to reach them in time. His chest was aching, his lungs burning, VEGA was talking, but he could only hear blood rushing in his ears and the chainsaw getting louder and louder. 

"NO! DAD, STOP,  _ PLEASE _ !" He begged, using all of his remaining breath to yell, trying to reach their ears. 

He could see Herobrine on the ground, cowering, green arcs running up and down his body, and  _ oh god _ there was so much blood on him- Xisuma's horror grew as he noticed that Hero's arm was detached from his body, and he was desperately trying to get it back in place, holding it to his shoulder, and the arm was glitching- and then there was his dad, just a few blocks away now, seething with anger, and his armor was dented and full of soot and his skin looked badly burnt and he was raising his chainsaw, ready to bring it down onto Hero-

" **STOP** !"

Xisuma cried out once more, all but leaping between the two figures. He wasn’t thinking about it anymore, wasn’t considering what he was doing, he just wanted them to  _ stop fighting _ . He knew he couldn’t allow either of them to get hurt any more. He threw his body in front of the chainsaw, arms spread out wide to protect Herobrine from his dad's wrath.


	6. De-escalation

Finally, with the final dregs of the green energy he’d been hit with faded away, the arm glitched and reattached itself to Herobrine’s shoulder. He gasped as the pain of the bone and muscle shuddering back somewhat together shot through him, then reopened his eyes to see just what had stopped the nightmarish revving of the weapon the monster was using against him. To his horror, in front of him, shielding him from his attacker with his own body, was Xisuma. 

The less-than armour clad admin seemed to go limp, before suddenly straightening and turning around to look at Herobrine.

“Well that was a close one!”

Herobrine engulfed X in a hug, sobbing loudly into his bandaged chest. Several mixed together sentences including the phrases “oh my god”, “I thought you were dead” and "what is that monster?" among other things were stuttered out, but mostly it was just unintelligible crying. Xisuma twisted around, wincing as the bandages strained against his injury, but ignoring the pain as he slowly gathered the despondent cryptid in his arms and held him as he cried, patting the back of his head gently. He grimaced as he took in the sight of Herobrine, noting just how many severe injuries littered the poor man's body, many of which would have been fatal to anyone else. Then he looked back to the Slayer, who had taken a few steps back, and noted that he was also looking worse for wear.

\---

The Doomslayer flinched back in horror, even dropping his chainsaw in shock. It sputtered and jerked over the ground as it was still in motion, but the engine died out soon enough and an eerie silence fell over the scene.

Xisuma was right there.

His son.

Drops of his blood were splattered onto the Slayers helmet.

He had jumped right in front of him, shielding the demon with his body, running right into his chainsaw just as he intended to finish off the demon. The slayer had immediately pulled back his weapon, but he had still felt the teeth biting into Xisuma’s skin, trying to tear at him like they did with so many demons.

It was probably the greatest fear of the Slayer - hurting his kids, his sons, and now it had happened. He felt his hands going numb from the realization. Something was crawling up his spine, something he hadn’t felt in a long time. Guilt? Fear? Dread?

Maybe he was just hurt?

He didn’t have it in him to move.

And now Xisuma was being restrai- no…  _ hugged _ by the demon??

Stunned, almost as if frozen in place by shock, he watched the two men. The demon was crying -  _ crying  _ \- in his son’s arms, shivering and trembling, sobbing barely coherent sentences into Xisuma’s chest. Xisuma was.... patting his back? Gently stroking his hair? Trying to  _ comfort  _ the demon?

The two finally pulled apart, with Xisuma's hand immediately reaching up to his chest. It was covered in blood, the bandages torn into shreds. Xisuma coughed, and the Slayer could see blood dribble out of the corner of his mouth.

He fell to his knees.

"Dad? Dad, are you alright?" He felt a hand on his shoulder, and looked up to see that Xisuma was walking up to him, the face visible behind the helmet clouded in worry and pain. 

Xisuma could barely hold himself on his feet, but he was stepping around the Slayer to check him over for injuries. 

"Dad?"

  
  


As Xisuma pulled away, Herobrine curled in on himself, covering his head with his less injured arm. He knew Xisuma had just saved his life, while at the same time risking his own. The question was, though,  _ why had the monster stopped? _

"Dad, Are you alright?" X's voice could be heard over Herobrine's ragged breathing. He peeked out from his huddle to see Xisuma shakily standing over the monster, which was on its knees, almost as if it was… hurt? The admin's hand was on its shoulder, like he was worried about this monster. What? What was going on?

“Dad?”

Herobrine stared at the two, not wanting to accept what he’d just heard.  _ Dad? _ This monster… Xisuma was its child?

At that point, he just started sobbing again, overwhelmed at everything. His body scrunched into the tightest ball possible, and he remained that way until he felt a hand on his shoulder.

The Slayer gently grabbed his son's arms, stopping him from fussing about. Worried, he looked up to him, then raised a hand to sign. 

YOU'RE HURT.

"It's.... I’m fine, dad." Both of them knew this was a lie. "But, dad, how are you? Are you hurt?"

The Slayer shook his head in disregard, despite just now slowly realizing how much pain he was actually in. He softly shoved Xisuma over to the side, leaning around him to look at the demon who was curled up, and sobbing. He gesticulated towards it with one hand, then looked back at Xisuma, questioning. 

Xisuma followed his line of sight, wincing and drawing a grimace as he turned around to look at Herobrine. He took a step over, then carefully placed his hand on Heros non-injured shoulder, looking his father in the eyes, pleading. 

"Dad, this is Herobrine. He's our friend. VEGA tried to stop you from killing him, but..." Xisuma took a few deep breaths as his fingers clutched around the fresh gash in his chest.

VEGA took over for him, switching from just talking in Xisuma's helmet to an outside speaker so all three of them could hear him.

"You did not listen to me."

The Slayer's shoulders drooped down in embarrassment and defeat. He really didn't listen, did he? And now his son was hurt.... He looked up again. Xisuma was swaying on his feet, so the Slayer pushed himself off the ground despite his injuries, and crossed the short gap between them, scooping Xisuma into his arms in a gentle hug. His head bowed down, unable to look anyone in the eyes. 

Xisuma recognized the apology. 

"Hey now, it's.... it's gonna be fine. You didn't know, it was all just.... well, it was all just a bit unlucky." X softly patted his father on the shoulder, but soon had to resort to using said shoulder as a support. Blood was still dripping to the floor from his chest. Disregarding it in the same way the Doomslayer ignored his own injuries, Xisuma wrangled himself out of the hug and tenderly wrapped his arm around Herobrine again, who was still sobbing. The smaller man looked up to him, eyes filled with tears, and Xisuma could see the confusion and fear on his face. Herobrine was hopelessly overwhelmed with the situation. 

"Hey Hero, it's okay. I'm fine." He looked over to the hulking figure of the Doomslayer, kneeling right next to him. 

"So, this is my dad." He started, waving over to the Slayer. "Dad, this is Hero. Say hi."

Herobrine could only stare as the monster weakly raised a hand in greeting, seeming just as lost on the situation as he was. 

Exhausted, Xisuma let himself drop to the floor, slightly leaning his shoulder against his dad. VEGA’s voice piped up again. 

“I’d recommend you get first aid as soon as possible. All three of you have severe external and internal injuries that should be addressed as quickly as you can.”

At that, Herobrine slumped over onto Xisuma, letting his eyes drift closed as the sheer fatigue from the fight crashed over his entire body. Briefly, he thought he heard someone calling his name, but it sounded so... far away…

Xisuma gasped slightly as a weight dropped onto his battered body, and he looked over to see Herobrine laying practically on top of him, with his eyes slipping closed. 

“Herobrine? Please stay awake, my friend…” He did not respond. Xisuma frowned with worry, shaking his unconscious friend slightly, but garnering no reaction.

The Slayer raised his hand, softly putting it on Xisuma's arm to get him to stop shaking the-.... His friend. It would do him no good. X got the hint, looking up at his dad. The Slayer used this moment of attention to sign two words. 

I’M SORRY.

X smiled. “It’s… It’s okay. We’re gonna be fine.” He looked down at Herobrine, noting the sheer amount of blood that was still dripping onto the ground around him.

“Or maybe not...”  Xisuma slouched down, feeling dizzy. Weakly, he tried to access his inventory, but it was just empty anyways. Helplessly, he looked up to his dad.

Beaten, the Slayer looked at the two smaller men, both covered in blood and injuries and only half conscious. What now? Where should he even begin? Was there a health pack anywhere, or-...

He could feel himself starting to panic a little in the sheer overwhelming mess that was this situation. 

“Slayer, you still have some bandages stored in your suit.” VEGAs voice piped up again, startling them slightly. Resisting the urge to facepalm, the Slayer quickly nodded, rushing to get said bandages out. Right. VEGA was still there. He always was there for him. Why did he not listen to him earlier? He always listened to VEGA.

The Slayer raised the bandages up to Xisuma, attempting to wrap them around his chest, but X shook his head and pushed his dad's hands to Herobrine first. Shooting him a worried glance, the Slayer got to work. He tightly wrapped Herobrine's shoulder, grimacing as he saw how much damage there was. However, he couldn’t help but wonder at the fact that the arm was reattached to the shoulder in the first place, despite how mangled it looked. The bandages were tied into a makeshift sling so the arm wouldn’t be moved too much, then the Slayer moved on to the man's stomach. 

He had really done a number on him, hadn’t he?

Herobrine’s eyes were fluttering open and closed, but he didn’t react to any of the Slayers' treatment. 

After Xisuma had been wrapped up as well, the Slayer got back up to his feet. It hurt to look at the two men he had injured, but he forced himself to look his son into the eyes, tilting his head as if to ask what was next.

“We need to get back to the mainland. Or at least to my base, it’s not too far I think.” Xisuma suggested, carefully pushing the barely conscious Herobrine away from him only to bundle him up into his arms, trying to lift him. He faltered. Hero was a lot heavier than the last time he had to carry him, but X didn’t know if that was due to him finally eating better, or if he should chalk it up to himself being heavily injured. 

Nonetheless, he had no choice but to set his friend down again, breathing heavily as pain spread through his chest.

The Slayer saw his son struggle, and simply scooped up the smaller man himself.  As he did so, with intent to sling Herobrine over his shoulder for ease of carrying, the de… injured man suddenly shifted a bit, then snuggled himself against the Slayer's arm and chest.

The Slayer froze. He just…. Stared at Herobrine. The same man that had been trying to incinerate him just minutes earlier. The same one he had torn an arm off of. The same one his son worried about and called a friend, despite his unsettling blank eyes and fiery abilities. The very same man was now sleeping in his arms, looking almost peaceful if it were not for the considerable amount of blood all over him. 

Carefully, the Slayer shifted his grasp, holding him more securely before looking over to Xisuma, a little helpless.  X just chuckled.

"He does that sometimes."

A small smile spread over the Slayer’s face.

“Slayer, one of the Hermits is travelling near our location. I will display his coordinates on your HUD.”

The Slayer spared a grateful nod for VEGA, then started making his way towards said coordinates. Xisuma was stumbling along next to him, using his shoulder for support. The Slayer was increasingly aware of how heavy his son was breathing, and had to catch him as he tripped over his feet and almost stumbled down a slope. 

After that, he simply picked him up in his other arm, despite Xisuma's weak protests. 

They continued on for a while, the Slayer stubbornly ignoring his own muscles crying with pain and fatigue, instead focusing on getting the two in his arms home. The heavy boots crunched rhythmically through the leaf litter on the ground, until they stopped dead at the sight before them.

Right in the middle of the path ahead, a cat was standing, staring at the trio. Xisuma smiled at the sight.

"Hey Jellie! That's Jellie by the way." He leaned closer slightly, or tried the best he could without accidentally tipping out of the Slayer's grip.

"Is Scar nearby? Is that why you're here?" The cat waved its tail once in an almost lazy fashion before looking to one side, just as a purple-clad figure burst out from the undergrowth. 

"That'll be a yes then. Hello Scar!" Xisuma nonchalantly greeted him with a wave, blood covered and carried by the Doomslayer as he was.  Scar stopped dead, the skin under his floppy wizard hat going pale at the bloody sight before him. Jellie turned and slinked past him, mewing softly as she did so, and Scar stiffly pivoted around on one leg to follow suit.

"Eeeeeeuuuuuuuhhh follow me to the base then, I guess?"


	7. Relaxing time

“Sooo… you’re saying this-” Scar wildly waved over to the figure of the Doomslayer, who was currently peeling off pieces of his armor. “- is your _father_?!”

“Yup!”

“...” Scar stared at Xisuma, but got no further reaction other than a goofy smile. “...Xisuma, would you mind explaining a _little_ more than that, maybe?”

“Well, you know, he rescued and adopted and then raised me and my brother - EX - that’s why I call him dad. Oh and he’s even my biological father as well!”

“ _X that raises even more questions._ ”

Xisuma was humming to himself as he put honey into four mugs of tea he had just prepared. They were back at his base, sitting in his newly built storage system. He had found a bunch of spare healing potions in his enderchest, which had helped him and the Slayer greatly. They also managed to get some potion into Herobrine, who was now asleep on a bed Xisuma had put down for him. Scar was more than a little shaken at the situation, but had helped them get their bandages in order as best as he could. 

The Slayer had started to take off his armor - although only after he had made sure Xisuma and Hero were fine - revealing badly burned skin, and a row of very nasty dark bruises and marks along his spine. His dad didn’t seem too bothered by it, but Xisuma had rarely seen him get this badly injured. He gave his dad one of his spare shirts (which was a little tight on him, but better than nothing) and watched him as he sat down on the floor, somewhere near the bed Hero was in. X offered him a steaming mug of tea, which the Slayer carefully took, nodding as a thanks. 

Xisuma set one of the other mugs next to the bed for Herobrine once he woke up, then held out one of the final two to Scar. The wizard numbly took it, unable to tear his eyes away from the figure of the Doomslayer who was currently attempting to sip his still too hot tea.

Xisuma sighed, then sat down. 

Now that his adrenaline had died down and his injuries had begun to heal and hurt less from the potions he had taken, exhaustion spread through him. His limbs felt a little bit like lead, so he leant his back against Heros' bed. 

"Well..." He started, then trailed off. To be honest, he wasn't quite sure where to start explaining, but he owed Scar at least something. Questioning, Xisuma looked over to his father, who just nodded at him encouragingly. The Doomslayers eyes then fell back onto Herobrine, who he had been watching intently. The scrawny man seemed strained, his brows furrowed and eyes squeezed shut in his sleep. Despite his injuries and bandages, he was twitching and tossing around in the bed. Was he having a nightmare?

As the Slayer stared at him, he thought of his own boys, how they had been scared, and how many nightmares had woken them up over the years. His heart melted a little at the sight of Herobrine, and more out of habit and instinct than anything else he promptly extended one of his hands and softly put it on the top of Herobrine's head. 

His brown hair was surprisingly soft. The Slayer couldn't help himself but to curl his fingers through it at the discovery. Herobrine let out a mumbled noise in his sleep, but visibly calmed down. It was just like all these years back when the Slayer had been there for his sons, helping them through their nightly terrors and bad memories, petting their hair until they were fast asleep. Which was exactly what he kept doing for Herobrine now. His fingers drew slow, soothing circles through the man's hair. Sighing, he resigned himself to his fate. It calmed him as well, to be fair. He tried to take a sip of his tea - which was still too hot - other hand in Hero's hair, and idly wondered what the man had been through even before he had met him today that made him so scrawny and scared. 

Suddenly, the sleeping man stirred and opened an eye. He blinked, then suddenly recoiled away from the Slayer, a look of terror on his face. 

As the man shot away from him, the Slayer quickly drew back as well, raising his non-tea-holding hand in front of him to show he meant no harm. He had removed his helmet in order to drink, but that did nothing to hide the scarred features of his face. Despite this, he tried his best to make himself as non-threatening as he could. 

“Herobrine! You’re awake!” Xisuma beamed at him, struggling up from his spot on the floor to give Hero a hug. Herobrine gasped, but relaxed when he realized it was just Xisuma and returned the embrace, still shooting wary glances over to the Slayer. He shuddered and broke away, shuffling as far away from the huge Monste- Xisuma’s father? as he could. The Slayer looked slightly sad at that, and carefully grabbed something and held it out to him. Herobrine blinked slowly, and tentatively took it, revealing the object to be a mug full of steaming liquid. He sipped it, then smiled when it turned out to taste rather pleasant. 

The Slayer just stared at Herobrine drinking the tea, then looked down to his own mug. He raised it to take another sip of the beverage, and promptly burnt his tongue. As he had confirmed just half a minute before, the tea was still, in fact, too hot to be drunk comfortably. 

Curious, the Slayer leaned forwards, squinting as he inspected Herobrine closer. How come _he_ wasn’t getting burnt? Herobrine caught him staring and flinched, a tiny flame peeling off of the skin on his hand seemingly instinctively. 

The Slayer’s eyes caught the glint of the small flame, his hand already halfway to reflexively twitching to his weapons before he forced himself to stop. This was clearly a demon. His son was friends with a demon, and he had no idea how to feel about it. Helpless, he looked over to Xisuma, who was still checking on Herobrine's injuries. 

Xisuma smiled between them, the tension not going unnoticed. He clapped his hands together, satisfied that Herobrine wasn’t going to keel over in the near future. Herobrine and Scar both started, looking over to Xisuma.

“Anyway, storytime!” He announced, trying to break the atmosphere before it escalated once again. "It's a bit of a complicated story, but the base line is.... uh. Hm." 

Scar tilted his head, a look of concern and worry on his face. "You don't have to tell us, X, if you don't want to."

"No, I want to. I don't think I've ever talked about my past much, eh?"

Scar had to agree. 

"Okay, let's start with Dad." X started, getting comfortable again. He nodded over to the huge man near him. "He is called the Doomslayer."

"That's a weird name.", said GoodTimesWithScar.

"He is... well, he is protecting the earth and humans from hell invasion, where we are from. Our world." X made a short pause to let his words sink in, and to have another sip of tea. "Mh, that is some delicious tea. Anyways, he's been on this mission for many.... years, and has gotten a bit of a reputation, right dad?"

The Doomslayer just shrugged at X. 

"Anyways, there was a... mh, a _scientist_ named... named Hayden." Xisuma's voice softened, and he stared into the distance as memories bubbled up in his mind. Herobrine could tell they weren't any good ones. But Xisuma's expression hardened again, and he continued.

"He was a little obsessed with dad, and he wanted a Doomslayer of his own, so he started experimenting with cloning techniques, combining the Slayers DNA with creatures from Hell and other places alike to create a-... well, his... his own Doomslayer, if you will. That's how me and EX came to be."

Xisuma shared a look with all three of the present men, but they didn’t interrupt him. Scar’s eyes were wide in shock or surprise maybe, while Herobrine just looked like he was empathising with Xisuma at the memories. He had his own unfair share of painful experiences in his past, so he understood that recounting them sometimes was almost like living through them once again. Xisuma caught his eye, and gave the tiniest nod of appreciation before continuing.

“Long story short, Dad rescued us and got us out of there. We were… around a five year old’s size then. Hayden got what he deserved as well. It took us a while to trust them, but Dad and VEGA then pretty much raised us.”

“I am VEGA, by the way, a sentient AI in control of the Doom Slayer’s Fortress. Nice to make your acquaintances.” VEGA informed them over the external speaker of Xisuma’s helmet, and X nodded to that.

“Eventually when I was all grown up, I left home, and made my way to Hermitcraft at some point. I visit home occasionally, and Dad has visited me as well a handful of times, but I’ve never introduced him to any of the hermits. He didn’t want to.” Xisuma gave his dad a mischievous smile and added: “I think he’s just shy.”

The Slayer put a hand to his chest in feigned offense, then shook his head with a shrug. 

DON’T BELONG HERE, he signed. 

Xisuma snorted. “You know you can always visit, right?”

“Wait, then how come he was here when you-... wait, what even happened earlier?” Scar was confused.

“Ah, right! Well earlier today, I got a message from you, Scar, but when I got there, it was an ambush from th-” Xisuma interrupted himself, eyes wide, then jumped to his feet and stared at Herobrine wildly.

“ _Oh my word_ _we_ _forgot about the hunters_!”

Herobrine flinched and whimpered, curling in on himself. With the whole event of his fight with the Slayer, he’d forgotten about the reason this whole mess even started as well. The hunters having found their way back once again was a terrifying thought, even with the fact he’d fought them off easily enough. Scar grimaced and moved over to him, wrapping an arm around his shoulders while being careful to not jostle the injury.

Xisuma just stood in the middle of the room, panicking, not sure what to focus on first. The Hunters! He needed to ban them, get rid of them as quickly as possible. Looking over to Herobrine, he saw the man had curled up, his breathing getting faster and faster. He seemed like he was hyperventilating. The Doomslayer, however, just was confused and alerted, tilting his head in question as if to ask Xisuma what he was talking about. 

“The Herobrine Hunters, they’re-...” Xisuma interrupted himself, seeing as Hero was staring at him with wide, terrified eyes. He bit his lip. There was really no need to explain everything they did to Herobrine in detail while he was still present, it would only make him panic more. 

“Say, Hero, why don’t you go outside and take a breath of fresh air?”, X suggested softly. “...If your injuries are allowing it, of course. I think I still have some regen potions somewhere.” He rummaged through his enderchest until he found said potion, trying to calm himself down as well. This was fine. It was okay. They knew the hunters were there, the hermits greatly outnumbered them, and this time they had his dad and Herobrine on their side, albeit both of them were a little worse for wear at the moment. They could plan. They could think about it. 

“I’m gonna explain who they are to my dad, and then I’ll see if i can ban them, alright? You don’t have to stay if you don’t want to.” Xisuma gently pushed the regen potion into Herobrines trembling hands, nodding firmly at them. It stayed unsaid between them, but Xisuma assumed Herobrine would not be upset at all if he offered him a way out of the room with his dad in it, if he wanted to take it. His dad was terrifying at best to normal people, so Xisuma could only guess what Herobrine must be feeling right now after actually fighting - and surviving - him. 

Herobrine quickly jumped to his feet and scurried towards the door, disappearing through it.

After he was gone, Xisuma sighed and took another sip of tea, then cleared his throat. “When Herobrine first showed up on our server last season, he was in a pretty bad shape. Of course we were a little… wary of him at first, but when we learned he was just scared, we tried to help him. But just shortly after that, the hunters appeared on the server. There were about 30 of them I think, a terribly rude bunch, and they were hunting down Herobrine for years, following him from server to server...”

He continued to summarize the hermits’ fight with the hunters and the resulting chaos to his dad, giving him an overview about who they were.


	8. Enemies return - again!

Outside of the building, Herobrine’s legs went weak and he sat down heavily against the wall. He uncorked the bottle X had given him and swallowed the liquid inside before dropping it onto the grass just to his left. Then he drew his knees to his chest and flopped over the other way, hiding his face in his arms as he did so. 

_Breathe… they’re not here, they’re not here… you’re safe_ …

…

Slowly, Herobrine’s heart stopped beating so fast, and his breathing slowed. He soon felt calm enough to uncurl from his ball and stand, deciding to go for a walk in the surrounding jungle to further clear his mind. 

The cooling shade washed over him as he stepped into the trees, further driving any ill thoughts from him and replacing it with a sense of peace. Herobrine sat down against a tree, listening out for the sounds of the wildlife around him.

Above his head, several parrots chirped and squeaked at each other as they fluttered about. The soft padding of an ocelot accompanied by its kitten was heard to his left, nearly drowned out by a pig nosing through the underbrush for tubers on his other side. Herobrine smiled, taking a deep breath and enjoying the moment.

Then there came a weird whistle of something flying through the air, and pain exploded through Herobrine’s shoulder.

He cried out and shot to his feet, staring down at the embedded arrow with quickly rising panic. Bodies crashing through the undergrowth immediately set off his fight or flight response, and he turned and ran. More arrows thudded into the environment around him and he weaved in and out of the trees, hoping they would cover him from being hit again. He had to get back to Xisuma's place, he'd be safe there. To his relief, the door of the building came into view, and Herobrine increased his speed to get through it befo-

Something heavy crashed into him from behind, knocking him off his feet and making him skid several blocks in the grass. He grunted in pain as a knee came down on the back of his head, and more weight pressed onto his legs and arms. 

“Gotcha bitch.”

The rest of the hunters piled on, and in his still injured state, Herobrine could not muster the strength to throw them off. All he could do was yell. And yell he did.

\---

“...And that’s why they held me hostage, I think. They were trying to get Herobrine to come to them.” Xisuma finished his explanation. 

Scar looked at him, sadly. “Man, that’s horrible. They should-”

He was, however, interrupted when a scream was heard from outside the door. Scar jumped and looked towards the source of the sound nervously, while X froze where he was standing. Horror settled within him as he realized that it was Herobrine who was screaming. He had never heard his friend raise his voice like this.

On Doomguy, however, the scream had the opposite effect. He jumped to his feet, jamming the heavy helmet back on his head, and without even bothering to replace the rest of his half discarded armor back onto his barely healed skin, marched over to the door. 

The scene outside was a sorry sight, and it made the Slayer’s blood boil once more. Herobrine, the man he had just carried home and bandaged and calmed in his sleep, was on the floor. He was pinned down by several humans, and the Slayer quickly came to the conclusion that these must be the hunters that his son had been talking about. They were covered in dark armor, and he recognized them as the people he had seen running away when he had first found Xisuma and Herobrine. 

One of them was kneeling on Hero’s back, while two more were holding down his arms and legs. Another one was drawing his sword, a ragged, ominous looking blade. None of them had noticed the Slayer yet.

VEGA made himself known inside of the Slayer’s helmet. He marked the face of the Hunter holding the sword, sending a ping onto the HUD. 

“It has come to my attention that this is the Hunter who has stabbed Xisuma. I would suggest taking care of him first. And not just because his sword is poisoned.” The Slayer agreed with VEGA’s ferocity, cracking his neck before approaching the group.

Without hesitation, he grabbed the hunter in question by the collar of his armor from behind, lifting him with one arm. 

The hunter kicked out in surprise, and his face drained of colour as the Slayer turned him so they were face to face. The rest of them spun around, terror on their face evident when they discovered they had unexpected company.

The Slayer resisted the urge to hurl this despicable excuse of a man with full strength into the next tree, and instead just dropped him. He then moved over to Herobrine, who was still being held down. None of the hunters were paying attention to the ‘demon’ however, their full focus laid on the Slayer steadily approaching. Two hunters scattered out of his way, stumbling backwards almost hysterically. The remaining two were frozen in shock on top of Herobrine, So the Slayer simply picked them up, one in each hand, and tore them off the injured man. 

Instead of further bothering with the hunters - since that would only lead to injuries, and not on his side - he simply ignored them. Kneeling down, he offered one hand to Herobrine as a help to get up.

Before Herobrine could react to it, however, an arrow bored itself into the Doomslayers shoulder. Very slowly, he turned his head, staring at the unfortunate hunter who still had his bow in his hands. 

“Forrest, what the _everloving fuck_ are you doing?”, one of the other hunters hissed, voice cracking in fear. They slowly backed away from both their companion and the Doomslayer, who got up, eyes still firmly on the one called Forrest.

The hunter was frozen, evidently regretting his actions as the rest of his teammates parted away from him, leaving him alone to face the wrath of the Slayer. 

The Slayer walked all the way up to the hunter, until he was just inches away. He stared down into his face, eyes hidden behind his visor, and slowly raised his hand. The hunter gulped. However, the Slayer simply curled his fist around the arrow still stuck in his arm, and yanked it out, without even flinching. He didn’t break eye contact even once. The hand with the arrow came up again, right in front of Forrest's face, and, with a barely noticeable flex of a bicep, the arrow simply snapped in half. The Slayer opened his hand and let the splinters drop to the floor, hoping his message was clear enough.

Turned out, it wasn’t. 

Forrest slinked back slightly, but then noticed the Slayer did not move to come after him. A snarky grin spread over his face, which was still slightly bloody from the fight with Herobrine earlier. “What, you're all bark and no bite? Well, not even bark either? Really?"

An exasperated groan was heard from one of the other hunters, despite still being terrified of the Slayer. 

“Oh, _Forrest…_ ” They didn’t need the non-human instincts of Herobrine to know that they should just _not_ mess with the man in front of them.

VEGA decided to stay silent, thoroughly enjoying the situation.

The next sound was a rather satisfying slap.

Followed by a loud _thud_ as Forrest dropped to the floor like a sack of potatoes.

The Slayer just stared at him for a few seconds, then looked back down at his hand, not having expected him to just be knocked out instantly. Shrugging it off, he then decided to just leave him there, all bloody nose and face on the ground.

As the Slayer's back was turned, Herobrine was struggling to his feet. He was stuck between hunter and death, and had no idea which he preferred at that point. Behind the huge monster he could see Xisuma and Scar, and he stumbled towards them. However his legs failed and he dropped, but never hit the floor. The monster had caught him.

Herobrine squeezed his eyes shut as he felt himself get lifted off the ground. Then the world rocked as the monster started moving. Finally, it stopped just as he was beginning to get nauseous, and he was deposited into a strong set of arms.

"Herobrine? My friend, are you alright?" Herobrine just whimpered in response, causing X to sit down and shift him into a hug. Scar leaned over, considering his actions before placing a Jellie onto Herobrine's lap, which he quickly turned to cuddle as well.

Herobrine broke away after a few minutes, still cradling Scar's beloved cat, but he shuffled back to let Xisuma stand before wobbling to his feet himself.

He looked around, noticing that all of the hunters were drawn back as far away from the monster as they could. Well, all except one, who was sprawled rather unceremoniously on the ground at its feet. It looked between Herobrine and the hunter, then slid its boot under the limp body and tossed it back towards the rest of the gang. One of them crept forward to retrieve their unconscious friend before skittering away again nervously. It stared at them for a moment longer before turning back to Herobrine. Herobrine shivered, but he didn't feel like he was in danger. In fact, quite the opposite. Thoughts were whirling around inside his head. The monster was not trying to kill him anymore? It was Xisuma's father? He had plucked the hunters off him, thus saving him?

Did he even deserve the name of "monster"?

"S-Scar? What's the… b-big guy’s… name?" Herobrine whispered. Scar smiled in response. 

"He's called the Doomslayer, apparently. Slayer for short."

That really wasn't much better but whatever.

He handed Jellie back to Scar before stepping away, intending to go back inside the building behind them and maybe sleep for a week or two. But a wave of dizziness washed over him, and he stumbled directly into the Slayer's side. The larger man did not react to the sudden impact at first, but then held an arm out, as if to offer a hand hold for Herobrine to steady himself on. 

Maybe he raised an eyebrow when Herobrine practically wrapped himself around it, who knows. But he definitely ruffled his hair in response. A chain of events was now somehow leading to a sleeping Herobrine leant against the Slayer's shoulder.

Xisuma smiled at the sight, then shook his head and walked past them, making his way over to stand in front of the hunters. His face turned into a frown upon looking at the sorry bunch.

"You guys… You are literally the worst."


	9. Harsh Words and Swift Hammer

The hunters looked up to Xisuma, eyes wide, for once out of mocking comments and rude remarks. The one the Slayer had picked up earlier, Brad, was still shaking slightly. All of them were sitting on the floor, defeated, not even daring to  _ think  _ about running away. Well, all but one - Forrest was still knocked out on the ground between them.

Xisuma sighed heavily, positioning himself in front of them, despite injury.

“Where do I even begin? Do you peeps know what you did to us? To Herobrine?”

“Are you going to give us a  _ lecture _ ?” One of the hunters was brave enough to complain.

“Actually you know what, yes, I am. You got a problem with that?”

The hunter opened up his mouth to give a defiant answer, but his eyes flitted over to the Doomslayer standing behind X, just ever so slightly tilting his head. 

“No…” The hunter finally mumbled. 

Xisuma frowned, getting into his most disappointed dad voice.    
"Now, can you tell me who this is?" He pointed to Herobrine, then looked at the hunters sternly.

None of them dared to answer, so he just continued anyways. 

"This is Herobrine, a dear friend of mine. You know how we found him last season? He was injured, beaten, starving. Because he was running from you guys. He kept passing out, we found him asleep in the weirdest places. At first, he was incredibly scared of us, and you know why? Because of you guys. You did that to him, you hunted him for so long he forgot how it was to have normal social interactions again. He bent over backwards to escape from us, despite us not wanting to cause him any harm."

"Yeah, but he is-" One of the Hunters started, already sounding defensive and dismissive. Xisuma got her to shut up with a well placed glare that rivaled his dad's. 

"We hid him, and tried to help him. I asked you to leave. You didn't listen. If I remember right, you-" He pointed towards Brad, who was still shakily holding his sword. "-actually tried to kill me while I was negotiating. And, then, when you didn't get what you wanted, you made life a living hell for us. Where do I even start!"

"But that was-"

"I'm not done yet.” X simply cut him short. “You kidnapped hermits. You kidnapped Grian, torturing him with that wither effect."

"Actually, that was Forrest." A hunter said timidly and pointed towards his unconscious 'buddy'.

"You kidnapped Doc, tortured him and tore his arm off!"

"That was also Forrest..."

"And when he finally got away, he had been inflicted with that disgusting parasitic plant from you guys!"

"You won't believe it, but that was-"

"Oh, I don't wanna hear it anymore!" Xisuma was becoming more and more enraged the more of their crimes he remembered. "Then, what about Diana! You held that poor girl captive for goodness knows how long! She told me she lived in a cage, and I'm fairly certain you're responsible for her eye as well! Not to mention killing her, and resulting in her legs being paralyzed!"

One of the hunters had a mocking smile creep onto his face, but it fell  _ very  _ quickly as his eyes fell onto the Doomslayer, who was seething with hatred. The more of their doings Xisuma listed, the angrier the Slayer became. He was fighting a lot of demons on a regular basis, and was not unaccustomed to their twisted morals, betrayal, and the gory reality that was hell, but hearing what these  _ humans  _ did to others... He didn't move, yes, but his presence alone was enough to make the hunters shut up quickly. 

"You came onto our server -  _ my _ server. You came here, despite the fact you should not be able to. You have this rotten command block, I don't know what you did with it, but it's not good. You have your cheaty armor, your awful swords - how could you willingly put the wither effect onto another human! So, you come onto my server, you murder, you kidnap, you behave like you can do whatever you want. You impersonated us, you laid traps and baited us, abusing our friendship for your own plans. You waged war on us, despite the fact that we had not laid a finger on you before. All we did was protect Herobrine, who does not deserve to be hunted down in such a way. No one does," Xisuma growled. "For heaven's sake, you even turned against your own teammates! You betrayed your own, dropped the people who had traveled and been raised along you, and attacked Harpy, who did her best to protect all of you guys. You should be  _ ashamed _ . And now, after all this, after all you've done, you have the  _ nerve _ . The guts. To come back, to worm your way onto our new server." Xisuma walked all the way up to the hunter with the sword, pointing his finger against his armored chest. "Stringing together some half-braincelled plan, stabbing me - for the third time, I might add! You have the nerve to come at Herobrine again, after all you've done to the poor fella already?!

People like you  _ disgust  _ me." 

Neither Scar nor the Doomslayer had ever heard so much sheer disdain in Xisuma's voice. Even though it was not directed at him, Scar could feel the disappointment, and it almost made him want to apologize to Xisuma himself. The Doomslayer, on the other hand, could not have been more proud of his son. His rage was simmering down. Xisuma was really good at negotiating, expressing his anger in words - while the Slayer himself only expressed his rage in action.  _ Must have gotten it from VEGA _ , he thought to himself, smiling into his helmet.

"I'm going to ban you now, the whole lot of you, so you have no way of ever bothering us or Herobrine on this server again. And I don’t  _ ever _ want to see your faces again. Is that clear? If I ever spot your sorry visages again, trust me, I won’t attempt to hold either of these guys back.” Usually, the hunters would have laughed at Xisuma, but the Doomslayer standing close behind him menacingly made a compelling argument, despite the fact that he was cradling an apparently sleeping Herobrine in his arms.

Xisuma glared over them for a few moments more, waiting for any snarky remarks back, but the hunters only looked away or down at the floor, seemingly ashamed into a sullen silence. Satisfied that he had gotten his point across, he took out his communicator. A few taps later, the admin console opened, and the admin got to work, typing in the commands before finally confirming them. And just like that, the hunters were gone. Xisuma nodded to the empty spot that once held them, then closed the admin console and turned back to the other three.

"Well, now that's over and done with, I think we all need some time to relax for a while."

A quiet sniff directed his attention to Herobrine, who turned out to not be quite as asleep as first thought. His face was streaked with the tears that were running down it. 

"Oh dear, don't worry my friend, they're gone forever now." Xisuma smiled. Herobrine tearfully nodded his head once.

"Thank you." 

The Slayer proceeded to start softly running his fingers through Herobrine's hair, which he relaxed into until he really was asleep this time. Scar stepped forward with a ponderous face.

"Y'know, it's kinda amazing how quickly he starts trusting others, especially with his past. Like, Doc's first experience with him was a literal fight almost to the death, but a few days later they were best buddies." He stroked his chin slightly.

"How… may I ask… how badly did you uh… hurt… him?" The pointed question made the Slayer shift uncomfortably.

He did not seem to want to answer that question, so VEGA took it upon himself to inform Herobrine's friends. 

"Unfortunately, we injured Herobrine quite critically. I don't know how he is still, well, alive. On top of that, the Slayer also managed to tear off his arm, hence the bad state of it." VEGA didn't really see a nice way to say it. He took a pause as he saw Scar wincing. 

"Dad! I told you not to do that to non-mobs!" Xisuma had seen the state their battle had left Herobrine in, but he was still shocked. 

The Slayer decidedly looked no one in the eyes.

"...It seems to be... healing, though. Curiously enough, Herobrine also managed to survive a direct hit from the BFG 9000, although it seemed to have affected his healing abilities."

"Still can't believe you used the BFG on him."

Scar was confused. "Uh, if I may, what exactly is the... BF..G?"

This time, it was Xisuma who took it upon him to explain.    
"It's best described as a sort of energy beam weapon. It pretty much annihilates every living being it touches, that's why I told Dad-" He glared at the Doomslayer "-not to use it on the Hermitcraft server." His face turned a little softer, sadder. "It's amazing he managed to get through that. I've only ever seen it from a distance, but it leaves nothing but a few bloodstains of any demon. I can't imagine how painful it must've been on Herobrine..."

His voice drifted off, staring at Herobrine in the Slayer's arms. He was deeply asleep for once, but the bandages left him a sorry sight once more. Suddenly, the Doomslayer stopped in his tracks, turning around to face Scar and Xisuma. He shifted Herobrine so he was holding him in one hand, then started signing.

I AM VERY SORRY, X. SCAR.

VEGA decided to translate for Scar, since he was not sure if the wizardy man knew sign language. "The Slayer says he is sorry, and so am I."

Scar simply nodded, a little relieved. 

Xisuma smiled, gently. "I know. I'll tell Hero when he wakes up."

The Slayer nodded back at him, relaxing as well. 

None of them really knew what to say to that now, so they just stood there, outside of Xisuma's base.

"Wait what does BFG stand for anyway?" Scar suddenly asked. Xisuma simply chuckled in response, but stoutly refused to answer, leaving the wizard ever more confused than before. If that was even possible at this point.

"Uh, anyway! Let's get inside," Scar interjected to break the awkward atmosphere, pivoting around and heading back into the building. X sighed and followed behind him, and finally, the Slayer was last to disappear through the doorway, swinging the door shut behind him.


End file.
